Indexing wire cutter apparatus



Feb. 27, 1968 s. A. PLATT 3,370,495

INDEXING WIRE CUTTER APPARATUS Filed Oct. 21, 1965 3 Sheets-$heet 1 56. l INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS Feb. 27, 1968 s. A. PLATT 3,370,495

INDEXING WIRE CUTTER APPARATUS Filed Oct. 21, 1965 3 Sheets-Shea? t 5;

' INVENTOR. 67524490 4/4472 ATTORNEYS 3,370,495 INDEXING WIRE CUTTER APPARATUS Stephen A. Platt, 1100 Fulton, Grand Haven, Mich. 49417 Filed Oct. 21, 1965, Ser. No. 499,987 8 Claims. (Cl. 83-176) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Wire coil cutoff apparatus having especially rapid, sensitive, and controlled cutter blade indexing action coupled with especially rapid and high powered, independent blade cutting action, such apparatus including separate, positive acting, independently actuable, power actuators for indexing and cutoff. The cutoff blade mounted to a lever is movable in two respective independent motions with respect to a wire coil guide mounted to a frame element, under the action of these actuators, due to controlled pivotal action between the lever and frame.

This invention relates to wire coil cutoff mechanism for use in combination with wire coiling machines, and more particularly to a coil severance apparatus for accurately, sensitively indexing, and subsequently powerfully, swiftly cutting a continuously formed wire coil into exact selected length segments.

Several types of mechanisms have been developed heretofore for repeatedly severing a continuously formed coil of wire into selected length segments. The cutter blade for such mechanisms is normally mounted immediately below and adjacent the coil discharge guide orifice of the machine, to be shifted up transversely across it. To cause the severance cut to occur in the proper position on the coil, the cutter blade is conventionally first shifted a fraction of its cutting movement into an indexing position between the turns of the coil, and then subsequently shifted completely up to sever the coil wire.

One difliculty arising with present cutter mechanisms is that of obtaining a clean cut across the wire, particularly at an exactly selected position on the coil. Frequently, the cutter blade causes an elongated cut that results in elongated severed ends with deformed cross section, rather than a clean cut of minimum area on the ends of the wire. Obtaining a clean cut is particularly troublesome with fine (hair size) wire that is highly sub ject to deformation and is coiled at a high speed aproac-hing 5,000 r.p.m.

If efforts are made to shift the cutter blade of present devices with a higher thrust power means than the normally utilized, with these present principles of construction the added mechanism would create greater bulk and complexity around the outlet orifice. Further, although the blade action could be more rapid and deft in the cutoff movement, this would also render the present cutter indexing substantially less sensitive, so that accuracy of cutting would be sacrificed for a cleaner cut.

What is really needed, therefore, is an extremely sensitive indexing movement of the cutter, followed by an extremely powerful, swift cutofl movement of the cutter to cut accurately on the fly, so to speak. These two conditions are somewhat inconsistent with each other and cannot both be obtained in optimum amounts with presently available mechanism. The problem becomes particularly acute when working on extremely fine hair size wire, as noted above, especially at high speed coil output of about 5,000 r.p.m., since the indexing movement should then have a feather touch of only a few ounces, while the cutoff movement must be extremely rapid, requiring a large power unit.

It is one object of this invention to provide a wire coil Unied ate Patent 0.

cutoff mechanism for use in combination with wire coiling machines, having both high sensitivity for indexing by the cutter, and swift powerful severance action of the cutter.

Another object of this invention is to provide a wire coil severance unit for wire coiling apparatus, achieving greatly increased speed and power of the cutter movement, enabling clean cuts with minimum end area on the severed wire to be achieved, and without significant deformation of the wire, even on wire coils moving at extremely high linear and rotational output rates.

Another object of this invention is to provide a wire coil cutoff mechanism that employs the force of gravity in combination with a powerful actuator mechanism, to achieve an increased rate and force of cutter blade movement for the severance operation.

Another object of this invention is to provide a wire coil cutoff mechanism that enables employment of a large power shifting solenoid for greatly increasing the speed and power of the cutter action, yet without necessitating additional bulky means adjacent the forming mandrel and work rolls as would be required on conventional equipment.

Another object of this invention is to provide a novel wire coil cutoff mechanism that has both a rapid, high power severance operation, and an extremely sensitive floating indexing movement of the cutter, useful on very fine or heavier wire. The result is exactly controlled positioning of the cutoff, regardless of whether the wire diameter is quite substantial or is only hair size diameter.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved wire coil cutoff mechanism having both a gravity biased, floating, feather touch, sensitive indexing action of the cutter with only a few ounces force (comparable to that of a phonograph needle), and also having an extremely rapid powerful cutoff action employing the force of a heavy solenoid and of gravity to supplement its action.

These and other objects of this invention will become apparent upon studying the following specification in conjunction with the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of the first form of the wire coil cutoff mechanism;

FIG. 2 is a rear elevational view of the upper part of the mechanism in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary view of a portion of the apparatus in FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is an exploded View of the three main interfitting operative components of the cutoff mechanism in FIGS. 1 through 3;

FIG. 5 is a front elevational somewhat perspective view of the second form of the mechanism shown in combination with a wire coiling machine;

FIG. 6 is a partial, front, elevational view of the second form of cutoff mechanism; and

FIG. 7 is a partial rear elevational view of the second form of cutoff mechanism.

preferred First form Referring now specifically to FIGS. 1 through 4, the assembly 10 includes a fixed support subassembly 12 and a cutting subassembly 14.

Support subassembly 12 includes a main support plate or block 16 adapted to be mounted on a coiling machine platform 18, includes a depending, fixed, elongated sleeve 20 secured to and extending downwardly from element 16, includes a solenoid suspension plate 22 aflixed to the lower end of sleeve 20, includes a hollow upstanding support bearing column 26 extending upwardly from element 16, and includes an inverted, L-shaped, fixed, vertical column bracket 28 extending upwardly from element 16 and having a transverse upper leg 28 extending hori- 3 zontally over the vertical axis of the passage through elements 26,16, and 22.

A heavy powerful cutter solenoid is mounted beneath plate 22 by a plurality of upwardly extending threaded rods 34, and a pair of compression coil springs 36 and 36' on each shaft between the nuts and 35' on the upper and lower ends of the rods and plate 22. These effect a resilient mounting for the solenoid so that, even with its rapid powerful armature shift, the machine is not jarred significantly.

7 Connected to the retractable armature 32 of solenoid 30 through a link 40 is an axially shiftable, vertically elongated cutter operating rod 42 which extends slidingly up through sleeve 20, element 16, column 26, and collar 48? of cutter mounting and coil guiding bracket frame 48 for connection with one end of cutter pivot lever 50. The upper terminal end portion of tie rod 42 is bent to a horizontal orientation so that its round configuration provides a special connection with the opening 50 in the end of lever 50 in a manner to be described in detail hereinafter.

The cutting subasseinbly 14 includes bracket frame 48, pivot lever 50, cutter blade support plate 52, and the circular cutter blade 54. Bracket frame 48 is a laterally extending, vertically oriented plate having an annular 4 collar 48 on its lower end extending around and forming a sliding fit with vertically shiftable rod 42, and a second upper annular collar 48" aligned axially with collar 48, and extending around a downwardly extending support pin 60 secured in the horizontally extending leg 28' of L- shaped bracket 28. The cutter subassembly may be swiveled in a horizontal direction about the vertical rotational axis thus formed, against the bias of compression tension coil spring 62 connected to bracket 28 and stud 63, to enable the cutter assembly to be temporarily swiveled away from the output end of the wire coiling machine for adjustment of the wire coiling mechanism. Ordinarily, it is in the position shown in FIG. 1 across the face of the wire coiling machine.

On the outer end of bracket frame 48, opposite collars 48' and 48", is a pivot axis formed by a stud 64. This stud extends through one end of cutter blade support plate 52, one end of pivot lever 50, and the end of bracket 48, The cutter blade support 52 is normally fixed to lever 50, and not allowed to pivot on this pivot axis, since the opposite end of support 52 is fixedly secured by stud 66 to the central portion of lever 50. Stud 66 extends through a vertically elongated slot 52' in element 52 so that, by loosening stud 66, the pivotal position of element 52 may be adjusted with respect to lever 50, to thereby adjust the vertical relation of the edge of cutter blade 54 with respect to the wire coil guide 70 having a central'opening 70' through which the wire coil passes as it is formed. Element 70 is also removable to enable the opening size to be varied to suit particular coil diameters. The adjustment with stud 66 and slot 52' is to enable accurate initial positioning of the edge of cutter blade 54 with respect to opening 70, to suit each particular coil diameter.

Cutter blade 54 is afiixed by a' stud 72 to the central portion of element 52 to have a peripheral blade portion adjacent opening 70'. Thus, by pivoting lever 50 on pivot 64, the peripheral edge of the blade can be shifted partially or completely across opening 70'. Cutter blade 54 is normally fixedly mounted. It has a peripheral cutting surface to enable it to be rotationally adjusted at time intervals to expose a difierent portion of its sharp cutting edge for cutting.

Lever 50 is in bearing engagement with one face of frame bracket 48. It may be retained in this engagement by a retention bar 81 adjacent its free end and spaced from frame bracket 48.

The opening in the end of lever 50 that receives the end of rod 42 is specially vertically elongated to enable the upper end 42 of rod 42 to have a limited degree of freedom of vertical movement in this slot (FIGS. 1 and 2). The lower portion of this opening 50 is normally held up 4 r in engagement with end 42 by a small wire spring 80 mounted on one of its ends by fastener 82 to lever 50,

and extending through an elongated slot 83 in the top of the lever to intersect (FIG. 3) the top portion of opening 50' into biasing engagement with end 42.

By shifting the free end of lever 50 downwardly to overcome the force of spring 80, the lever and cutter blade 54 shifting therewith is allowed to drop a small fraction of an inch under the force of gravity, to float in the groove between the helical turns of a wire coil emitted rom opening This enables the indexing action of the cutter blade to be achieved. Actual downward shifting of this lever is accomplished by finger 90, which is an elongated rod having opposite ends 90 and 90" deforrrie d normal thereto to form a pivot connection at 90 on fixed support 92, and to have end 90" resting against the upper surface of lever 50 above opening 50'. Connected intermediate the ends of finger'90 is a depending tension spring 96, theother end of which is attached to downwar'clly retractable armature 98 of 'solen'oid IGR'RGTHZG tion of the solenoid armature at a signal places'a small, low power tension on spring 96, to depress the free end 90" of lever 50, to overcome the bias of spring 80, thereby allowing lever 50 and cutter 54 to have a gravity floating action of only a few ounces weight on the coil within its helical groove. It has been found in actual practice that this provides a feather touch, highly sensitive indexing action with a small phonograph needle on a phonograph record. The cutter therefore has an extremely sensitive indexing action to follow along the groove of the wire coil being formed until the signal is given to shift high power solenoid 30 for the cutting action. I

When the cutoff signal is given to solenoid 30, it shifts with a powerful downward stroke supplemented by gray ity to pull shaft 42 down, shift lever 50 and cutter blade 54 rapidly across the entire wire coil outlet 70, to form a neat cutoff. This last solenoid operation is against the biasing force of a pair of strong tension springs 104 extending between fixed laterally extending studs 106 secured to fixed collar 20, and a pair of laterally extend irig studs 108 affixed to shifting link 40. Since the elec trical impulse to solenoid 30 is only momentary, after the cutter 'moves rapidly downwardly over opening 70', it is retracted upwardly practically instantaneously so as not to interfere with the continuous protrusion of the coil.

Operation Although the operation of the apparatus is largely apparent from the description given above, it will be briefly reviewed to assure complete understanding of the concept taught.

Referring to FIGS. 1 through 4, the complete assembly 10 there shown is normally mounted to a'wire coiling occur with movement of the blade downwardly across the outlet to be cooperative with the force gravity, rather than opposite the force of gravity as with conventional cutoff mechanisms. Further, the indexing operation employs the force of gravity, i.e. the weight of the cutoff pivoting mechanism, to enable an extremely sensitive inrde'xing operation useful with even tiny wire sizes about the diameter of human hair, as well as with relatively coarse wire sizes. Guide 70 is selected to suit the particular coil diameter being formed.

As the wire coil spins at high revolutions of up to about 5,000 r.p.m. and at substantial linear velocities the actual opening 70, at a selected time interval prior to the actual cutofi step, the indexing operation is initiated force like that of the typical I 5. by electrical signal actuation of solenoid 100 to pull in its armature 98, thereby placing a tension on spring 96, to pull finger 90 downwardly about its pivot point 90', and thereby depress the free end of lever 50 against the force of wire spring member 80, to cause the lower portion of vertically elongated opening 50 to shift away from the upper horizontally formed end 42' of shaft 42. Pivoting of lever 50 about pivot 64 also pivots cutter blade support member 52 and blade 54 downwardly across a small fraction of opening 70 to engage the sharp edge of the cutter in the groove between the wire coil turns so that the blade floats along the groove with only a few ounces force until the signal is given to cut off the coil.

At the cutoff time instant, power solenoid 30 is signaled and shifts downwardly, pulling shaft 42 down with a substantial and swift thrust force, thereby shifting the cutter blade completely across opening 70', to neatly, rapidly, and powerfully sever the wire coil. Instantly, tension springs 104 retract the solenoid armature back upwardly to shift the mechanism back up across the guide and thereby allow the coil to continue to be fed.

Second form In FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 is illustrated a second and similar form of the apparatus to that shown in FIGS. 1 through 4.

The operation of this form of the apparatus is very similar to that in the first form 'of the invention, with the cutoff action again being achieved by an underslung suspended high power solenoid mechanism as shown in FIG. 1, but with the indexing occurring by a less preferred raising action of bracket frame 48 axially of shaft 42 and pin 60 against a stop 61, to thereby create a relative pivotal motion between modified lever in a manner to be described in detail hereinafter.

This modified form of the mechanism includes the same power solenoid suspension system beneath platform 18 as that shown in FIG. 1, which therefore is not repeated in detail. It also includes the basic support plate or block 16, the suspended collar 20, the upstanding hollow bearing column support 26, through all of which extends the vertical shaft 42 for effecting the cutoff action. The structure also includes the same inverted, generally L-shaped mounting bracket 28 to which pin 60 is vertically attached for extension down into upper collar 48 of frame bracket 48. The lower collar 48' of this bracket also extends around shaft 42 to allow a free sliding fit therethrough. The frame bracket assembly can be swiveled on pin =60 and shaft 42 around a vertical axis against the bias of tension spring 62 extending between support 28 and stud 63 attached to bracket 48 as previously, to enable the cutotf mechanism to be pivoted from its operative aligned relation across the face of wire coil forming assembly 150 shown in phantom in FIG. 5, to a second position away from the output face of the wire coiling machine for adjustment of the wire coiling mechanism. This coiling mechanism may be of the type in copending application Ser. No. 484,222, filed Sept. 1, 1965, entitled Wire Coiling Machine.

Attached on a horizontal pivot bolt 64 to the outer end of bracket 48 is a slightly modified form of lever 150. This lever has adjustably affixed thereto the cutter support member 52 mounting annular cutter 54 intermediate its ends and adjacent the outlet guide 70 as previously mentioned. The free end opening 150' of lever 150 may simply be circular in this instance, to receive the upper horizontally extending end 42' of shaft 42 in a pivotal connection, rather than being vertically elongated to provide the lost motion connection of the first form. The componcnts appear just like those in FIG. 4, except that this opening is circular instead of vertically elongated.

Indexing action is obtained with a low power indexing solenoid 100 having an armature 98 that is retractible downwardly to pull downwardly on a tension spring 96. The upper end of this tension spring is mounted to the outer end of lever 190 which is pivotally mounted inter- 6 mediate its ends to support bracket 28 (instead of hav ing the spring pull in the center of the lever as in FIG. 1). Thus, retraction of the solenoid pulls downwardly on the outer end of lever 190 to pivot its inner end upwardly. Since the inner end engages the under surface of collar 48", actuation of solenoid shifts collar 48" and thus the entire bracket frame 48 upwardly in an axial movement on pin 60 and shaft 42, against stop 61. Since shaft 42 cannot be shifted upwardly during this movement by the small solenoid, the resulting relative movement is ing the guide 70 to raise a small fraction of an inch, and thereby raise the wire coil C (FIG. 5) a small fraction of an inch into engagement with the peripheral sharp edge of cutter 54 for the indexing operation to occur. Subsequent actuation of the high power solenoid shifts shaft 42 downwardly, to swiftly and powerfully pivot lever on its axis 64 to pull cutter blade 54 across opening 70' to sever the wire coil quickly and accurately as in the first form of the invention. This form of the invention combines a fairly sensitive indexing motion with a high power cutoff motion under the force of a powerful solenoid coupled with the force of gravity (instead of against it).

The reason the first form of the invention is preferred over this second form is that the sensitivity of the indexing action is greater with the first form. It is useable with smaller wire diameters than the second form to cut on the fly accurately, cleanly, and without deformation of the wire. Further, with the first form of the device, there is no movement up or down of frame bracket 48 Whereas in this second form, the frame shifting causes the indexing motion.

Various additional advantages to each of the particular forms of the invention illustrated may be apparent to those skilled in this art upon studying the foregoing description, and realizing the concepts presented therein. It is also conceivable that certain details of the construction may be modified without departing from the concept taught. As just one example, the particular fixed support structure could be formed in various configurations while accomplishing the support in the manner taught. Therefore, the invention is intended to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims, and the reasonably equivalent structures to those defined therein.

I claim:

1. Wire coil cutoff apparatus for severing selected lengths from a helical wire coil continuously discharged from the end of a coil forming machine, comprising: coil guide means to guide a continuously formed wire coil; a cutter blade above said coil guide means; low power indexing means operably associated with said blade and said guide means to cause relative movement therebetween for partial indexing overlap thereof, to cause said blade to engage the helical groove of a wire coil in said guide means; suspended, high power cutoff shifting means operably connected to said cutter blade and positioned to pull said blade rapidly down across said guide, in the direction of gravitational pull, to sever the coil; upward retracting means operably connected to said high power shifting means to retract it back up across said guide and said low power indexing means including power shifting means actuable independently of said high power cutoff shifting means.

2. The apparatus in claim 1 wherein said coil guide means is mounted to a bracket frame, said cutter blade is supported by a lever intermediate its ends, said lever is pivotally attached on one end to said frame, and a tie shaft is connected to the second end of said lever and to said high power means to pull said lever down for cutoff.

3. The apparatus in claim 2 wherein said indexing power shifting means is a relatively low power solenoid and said second power means is a relatively high power solenoid.

4. Wire coil cutoff mechanism comprising: an elongated frame bracket; a wire coil guide intermediate the ends of said frame bracket, including a wire coil discharge opening; a lever pivotally mounted on one of its ends to one end of'said frame bracket on a horizontal pivot axis, to pivot in a vertical plane; a cutter blade supported by said lever intermediate its ends, adjacent to and above said coil discharge opening to be shiftable down thereacross; a suspended high thrust power cutofi solenoid; a tie rod operably connecting said solenoid to the second end of said lever opposite its pivot end; said lever and tie rod being interconnected with a lost motion connection to enable said lever to drop slightly and allow said cutter blade to slightly intersect said opening for indexing action on a wire coil being discharged therefrom; biasing means at said connection, normally retaining said lever elevated to prevent indexing intersection of said cutter blade and opening; and low power means operably associated with said lever to overcome said biasing means and allow said lever to drop for indexing action.

5. The mechanism in claim 4 wherein said low power means is an indexing solenoid operably connected to a spring to actuate the spring, and said spring being con-' nected to a lever depressing finger engaging said lever, said spring having a greater biasing force than said biasing means to overcome it when actuated. V

6. The apparatus in claim 1 wherein: said coil guide means includes a discharge opening; a frame bracket supports said coil guide means; said cutter blade is supported by a first lever pivoted to said frame bracket on a pivot mount spaced from said cutter blade; a second lever operably engages said frame bracket and is operably associated withsaid low power indexing means to elevate said frame bracket and thus said coil guide means in a manner to cause controlled pivoting between said first lever and said frame bracket to slightly overlap said cutter blade and said opening for cutting and indexing; and a tie rod connects said first lever to said high power cutoif means to pivot said first lever about said pivot mount a substantial amount independent of said independent pivoting, and thereby shift said cutter blade down across said opening for cutting off the coil.

7. Apparatus for cutting selected length segments of continuously advancing helically coiled wire comprising: a coil guide eye and a frame element mounting said eye between its ends; a cutter blade above said eye; a link element mounting said blade between its ends, and having one end pivotally connected to one end of said frame element on a pivot mount displaced from said eye; hoisting first solenoid means having relatively low thrust and operably connected to the second end of said frame element to elevate said eye with controlled pivotal movement of said frame element with respect to said link element and about said pivot mount, for partial indexing overlap of said eye with said blade; and second lowering high power solenoid means having relatively high thrust, and operably connected to the second end of said link element to lower said blade in the direction of the force of gravity, with substantial pivoting of said link with'respect to said frame element about said pivot mount, into overlapping relation across said eye for severance of a coil therein.

8. The apparatus in claim 1 including positive, movement limiting, stop means for said low power indexing means positively limiting the relative movement between said blade and said guide means during indexing.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,869,640 1/1959 Platt 83-907 X,

' ANDREW R. JUHASZ, Primary Examiner. 

